I agree! That's an wonderful mix of the two icon sets. You have an execellent eye for artistic details nilsonmorales and so I have greatly enjoyed all the displays of your icon sets and desktop shots. Keep up the terrific work for Puppy!

The default icon set in Wary and Racy and Precise Puppy 5.5 is LaGaBluenight, which for the most part is OK. They are quite nice icons, especially on certain types of backgrounds.

Really sorry to have to say this though, personally I do not like the replacement usb drive icon which was introduced recently. Those icons are all supposed to finish with a light blue aura (or "glow") around the edges and having the white surround around that does not look right at all to my eyes.

In fact the original usb icon is different from the hdd icon (eg in Wary / Racy 5.3). The shading in the dark area is different and has the usb symbol, although it is perhaps not blatantly obvious.

Anyway, I consulted CatDude about this because I know he is very good with graphics stuff and he came up with a usb drive icon which I think looks much better. While he was at it he also added the blue aura glow which was missing from the lock icon.

Hopefully BarryK will consider putting these in future releases (if using this icon theme) and maybe even including them in service packs.

Otherwise, individual users can decide which they prefer. I will attach the 2 new icons as a .PET but remember you will also need to run the Desktop icon switcher from the menu after installation and select LaGaBluenight again in order to load the new ones.

OscarTalks, the new USB icon was made by me, upon request from another member (I'm trying to remember who it was, and I'm afraid I cannot recall at the moment -- I'll go look, and when I find it I'll edit this post). I was BLOWN SLAM AWAY when I found my work picked up by BarryK himself!

I agree with you -- it doesn't fit well at all. But it was the best I could do with what I have. Please permit me to explain.

I suspect that the person who made the original icons did so in Photoshop. I don't know how to use Photoshop, although I've never tried very hard because the interface just doesn't make any sense to me at all. Photoshop is something my father uses very very well... but I really didn't want to bother him with a 48px icon.

I used a vector-based program called CorelDRAW instead. I'm (usually) very good in that program. Rather than use any sort of transparency on the icon (which I should've done, in retrospect), I used a tool called the "Blend Tool" which blends the shape and color of one polygonal object into the shape and color of another. It's like a gradient fill (black->white, over several 'steps' -- discrete shades -- CorelDRAW's default is 256 steps). That's why it looks ugly.

What I should've done is Blended the shapes to make the gradient-like fill (a true Gradient Fill in CorelDRAW has very limited shape options) and then applied a transparency (I *think* it can do that) -- or, once I'd created the Blend effect, sent it along to a website called Pixlr that's a Photoshop-like Flash-based contraption, and applied the transparencies there.

EDIT: Oh, of course -- it was Monsie who asked me to create that icon. The files are in a post of mine (which links to his request thread) about a third of the way down Page 23 of this thread. I'd tell you the number of the post, or provide a link to it, but I don't know how to do that _________________

Wasn't ashamed. More... inspired. The system that I did that on is having some problems right now, but once I get that fixed I'll quite possibly be releasing an updated version of that icon that actually isn't ugly.

Quite honestly, I thought it was kinda a botch job from day one. I just didn't think of how to fix it till today._________________

I've always packaged icon sets I liked from gnome-look and similar sites. What I have never tried is to make my own ones. Although making icon sets only for Puppy Linux takes much less time that doing the same for giant distributions, I'm not a whiz at graphic design so if you like them, use them, and if you have the expertise, fix them.

I agree with you -- it doesn't fit well at all. But it was the best I could do with what I have. Please permit me to explain...What I should've done...

Think of it this way:
Yours inspired them to do theirs.

It's an evolutionary process.
Nothing to be ashamed of.

Well put, Dewbie,

I am sorry that I missed this exchange until now. There is always room for improvement, and it's the positive exchange of ideas, constructive criticism, energy, and teamwork that will keep this Community strong...

My initial request for a usb drive icon to complete the LaGaBluenight theme sat unanswered for over a year.... Much later, I found out in another discussion that Starhawk had some graphics skills..., and so when I brought up the matter of my request, I was pleased that he immediately accepted and got to work on the task right away, and I appreciated his efforts because it was not something that a lot of people have experience or talent in doing... And the timing couldn't have been better, because BarryK happened to release Wary 5.5 shortly thereafter, and he chose to include this new icon in the LaGaBluenight theme. Neither Starhawk nor I had any notion of this, but in any event, there is a good chance that Wary Puppy might have been released again minus a complementary usb drive icon, and, who knows when the default theme would be completed --if at all...

Maybe there is a lesson here in terms of understanding human cognition and behavior:
(and that is to say) that we seem to notice and respond to things that seem to be a bit out of place (icons that don't quite match the set) much more so than to things that are not in place (icons that are missing). If this observation is indeed true, then I would say that it is better to submit something toward a project that is in need of improvement than not to submit anything at all...

Regardless, I appreciate everyone's work on the theme, because as I said already, I am all for improvement especially if such efforts are made in the spirit of teamwork and Community.

Monsie_________________My username is pronounced: "mun-see". Derived from my surname, it was my nickname throughout high school.

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